Anni - The Perfect Wisdom Web

a n n iAnd then of course, in the deepest sense, to put oneselfat the disposal of the communal life does not mean –as Ialready wrote at one point –finding a security and safetythat relieves an individual of any personal responsibility.Living in community doesn’t mean escaping from thestruggle for existence that is directly based on a person’sincome and expenses. From the economic perspective,the community also depends on each member’s effortsto secure its continuance. And so the need to provide foroneself is only seemingly lifted from each individual.But living in community also does not mean releasefrom the responsibility of personal decisions where questionsof the inner path are concerned. By giving up selfwilland independence, one is not categorically giving uppersonal responsibility towards any wish, any action, orany decision –in other words towards any deed of anykind–because the community will take care of it in one’sstead; no, all of these are merely given a new direction.One person, as an individual, can only represent his or herperception of life, of work, of the government, etc. andhis or her accomplishments toward that end –providedthe individual is guided by the urgings of an inner voiceto which he or she listens –are on an equally small scale.But now the individual steps out of the boundaries of hisown circle of influence and becomes part of the wide,sweeping circle of the community.In the community, however, the individual cannot gohis own way for himself, rather, all are gripped by onespirit and each represents the whole. And it becomes146